The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has asserted that the results of the 2023 presidential election it announced are both valid and official.
INEC emphasized that there is a complete consistency between the results collected by state returning officers and those declared at the National Collation Center.
This statement came in response to a letter addressed to the commission’s chairman, Mahmood Yakubu, from the Centre for Collaborative Investigative Journalism (CCIJ). The CCIJ had alleged that in their televised announcements, INEC reported the cancellation of voting in 1,578 polling units (PUs) due to various irregularities.
The letter, dated August 7, also claimed that the presidential results declared by INEC deviated from what was actually reported from the polling units.
In a reply, Yakubu’s spokesperson, Rotimi Oyekanmi, clarified that there are no inconsistencies regarding the number of registered voters or the presidential election results disclosed by the Commission.
“There are no discrepancies in the number of polling units or registered voters in the mentioned states. The total counts remain as reported by the Commission,” he stated.
He elaborated, “Election results may be annulled for specific reasons such as violence, over-voting, or failure to utilize the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS), as outlined in current legislation. The guidelines for how to handle results from canceled elections in specific polling units are also detailed in the Electoral Act 2023 and the INEC Regulations and Guidelines for the Conduct of Elections (2022). We invite you to explore the complete information on our website.”
Oyekanmi concluded, “The presidential election results presented by our 36 State Returning Officers, along with the Returning Officer for the FCT at the National Collation Centre in Abuja, are official and authentic. The figures mentioned in your letter, allegedly from certain local government areas in Imo State, do not align with the details/results publicly shared by the Imo State Returning Officer at the National Collation Centre.”
